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“Can you get him from here?”

“Easily, we just have to wait for the civilians to move. Shit, those hunters are here again.”

“What are they doing?”

“They’re staring at each other. Now one of them is fighting an illusion. He just got ripped to pieces… That’s a bit concerning, the target just used the same soul weapon the ghost hunter had. His summons just disappeared.”

“Where did they-?”

Boom!

The sound of explosions engulfed them as the building they were in collapsed.

***

The man turned to look at the figures and Ethan took the chance to summon his familiar and a gray bird surrounded by gusts of wind materialized.

“Get on!”

“We won’t make it! Recall your familiar!”

His Wind Hawk had gotten him out of every life threatening situation he had ever encountered. No matter how fast the man’s summon’s were, they couldn’t be as fast as his hawk. He hopped onto his hawk and left the stubborn Mary, no sooner had his hawk flapped its wings than both he and his hawks' heads were torn off.

The monsters attacking the armored figures collapsed and began having seizures. The armored figures rushed past the monsters and towards the man. One summoned a Flaming Salamander and had it spew fire towards the target. Another shot devastating rounds loud enough to kill someone with the sound alone out of a rifle. One of the members outright charged towards the monsters shielding their master with their bodies.

But what happened to the fourth one made her lose all hope. They had casted a spell and launched it but collapsed right afterwards. She saw that their soul had vanished completely, probably consumed by the man they were hunting. Now that he had learned how to cast spells they were doomed. The enhanced member pounded away at the monsters protecting their master but was barely able to cause a scratch in their armor.

All the monsters recovered simultaneously and flickered out of sight again. The first to go was the enhanced one, his arms turned into bloody stumps along with his head. The one shooting the rifle turned into a clump of blood and flesh on the ground. The salamander died first followed shortly after by its master. She waited for her turn but it never came. The monsters collapsed again but when they stood up this time they burst into flames and spit streams of fire out of their mouths.

“Fuck! Why can’t I do cool shit like you guys?”

He emerged from the protection of his now flaming monsters and skipped over.

“Hey kid, sorry about your friends but it was proper self defense you know? It’s a good thing you didn’t try to attack me. I wouldn’t have anyone to talk to, you know?”

“…”

“It’s okay, I won’t hurt you. You can speak.”

“…”

“I should ask a question then. Who are you?”

“…”

“Here let me see your mouth, does it even work?”

Despite being able to dodge his attempt at grabbing her she simply remained still. But somehow his hands managed to pry her jaw open with ease, he had probably stolen the enhancement method of the enhancer. He got up close and peered inside her mouth.

“Hey, everything that should be in there is there. Why won’t you talk?”

“…”

“If you don’t talk I’m gonna kiss you. Three… two… one. You seriously won’t talk? Or did you want me to kiss you? Whatever, I’ll deal with you later. Boys, burn everything you can.”

Lines of flames darted around setting everything beneath them ablaze. Within moments they were completely surrounded by flames.

“Don’t struggle too much, you might hurt yourself.”

She was immediately grabbed by a pair of scaly arms and jolted away. The ground beneath her flashed by in a blur that made it difficult for her to discern anything.

***

I probably would have died there if it wasn’t for me deciding to make them eat the hummingbird. I had assumed that the hummingbirds' high speed of flapping was simply a physical adaptation of their wings but I was wrong. Their high speed of movement came from their advanced rate of metabolism, which really just meant that they operated on a different time scale from humans. The reason the boys had become so fast was because they adopted that same time scale from the hummingbird.

Now they had even cooler powers as well, they could control air and breathe fire. Which were both skills I didn’t have that I really wanted to have. I was pretty sure that our strength had been enhanced as well. We still operated at the same speed but the boys had been able to disintegrate the other two members after killing the member who was freakishly strong. I was sure that this power up affected all of us because of how easily I was able to control the woman afterwards.

Even if she was slightly weaker than the first guy I killed she was still near his level, which meant she was definitely above me. I had also figured out why more chimeras kept spawning. Another spawned for every increase of my level of strength. When I had four chimeras I was about four times stronger than originally, when I had six I was six times stronger, and when I had eight I was eight times stronger.

But I was definitely more than nine times stronger now, so why did I only have nine of them? It probably wasn’t strength related then. There was probably something that increased my strength but also determined how many of them I could have. The freak increase in strength I had gained was probably unrelated to the mysterious counter I couldn’t find, or it could be but it just didn’t affect it much.

I’ll figure it out sooner or later. I paid some attention to our flight and felt quite proud. The boys had learned how to divert air from our course and push themselves forward to increase our speed. It was the middle of the day however and a bunch of giant ‘birds’ were flying around in broad daylight. They might not be able to see us with the naked eye but someone might accidentally snap a picture. We couldn’t go too high either because radar might catch us.

The only saving grace was that the boys could put out their flames and not draw too much attention. We flew over to some mountains and landed in a spot hidden away from the city’s prying eyes. How would I get this mute to talk? I had learned that people wouldn’t talk when asked about their objectives and goals. I had to pry at them some other way until they opened their mouths.

“You have a boyfriend, girlfriend, anyone you love? I’m seriously not going to kill you, I don’t enjoy killing pretty girls-I mean, I don’t enjoy killing at all, that just came out weird.”

“…”

“You’re making this really hard for me, I’m being really nice about this because I don’t know if you are a good guy or bad guy yet. If I don’t get any answers I’ll be forced to treat you like a bad guy. Or maybe you have some kind of tracking device that is being traced right now. Strip her.”

The boys delicately tore off all of her clothes and burned them. I placed my hand on her chest and sensed for any electronics or metal. My probing was blocked by some kind of invisible force and I couldn’t sense anything at all. I moved up to her head and tried to mess with her brain but I was stopped by the same force. Why make it so difficult? I was going to get the answers one way or another. I knew these kinds of people had high pain tolerances but did they have a high pleasure tolerance?

“I’m giving you one chance, tell me who you work for.”

“…”

“Ok, fine then. You guys do have dicks right? Feel free to do whatever with her, just don’t let her die. Hold her jaw open so she doesn’t bite her tongue.”

They instantly surrounded her and restrained her.

“No! No! Please! No!”

“Was it that hard? All you had to do was open your mouth and speak. You wasted a lot of my time for no reason. Continue boys.”

“Exorcist! I’m an exorcist!”

“Hold on boys. How many of you are there?”

“We have an entire organization and we aren’t the only ones. The ones in armor are from the government and there's many more that aren’t well known.”

“Why did you decide to hold out for so long? What in that tiny little brain of yours made you decide to test my patience? If you were going to play tough you should’ve played tough all the way. Did you think I wouldn’t torture you or did you think I would kill you if you told me? So fucking annoying! I hate it when people play these stupid little games. You’re lucky you’re pretty. Let’s go home boys.”

The boys picked us up and we sped back home.

***

Imagining what would’ve happened had she not spoken was enough to give her nightmares for the rest of her life. Aside from that she had to get this information back to the upper echelons so they wouldn’t keep sending slightly stronger hunters to feed this being. They would realize sooner or later that they were using the wrong tactic but it would be too late by then. Now that her safety talisman had been destroyed her family would probably send multiple high level hunters to retrieve or avenge her.

Hopefully they would be strong enough to kill this man, or atleast survive long enough to relay information back. She took a glance at the man and found him playing with water using his soul power. He was… strangely childish. Her suspicions were further confirmed when he dunked his head in the water and started making bubbles.

He noticed her staring and turned to look at her. She quickly looked away but he had already caught on. He was tossed to the monster carrying her and snatched by the leg then took off his sweater and handed it to her. She grabbed it and he was tossed back to the other monster. She couldn’t get a grasp on what was going on in his mind. One moment he was a ruthless killer, the next a caring child.

***

Can I make a whirlpool? I had always wanted to make a whirlpool strong enough to drag people around, it combined two of my favorite activities; playing with water and drowning things. Holy shit! I should go play in the ocean! I had to figure out the breathing situation first though. Maybe I could create another ghost? Suffocation? No, that would be death from lack of air. Should I just pump air directly into someone’s bloodstream? I’ll just try both.

First I had to deposit this little book of information home and try to convince Elaine I wasn’t cheating on her. With our speed we were able to get back home in less than thirty seconds. I had the boys drop us off and recalled them as fast as possible. While carrying the barely clothed living book back inside Elaine scrambled out of the house with a panicked look on her face. Did she figure out that fast? Upon seeing me with a girl her look returned to normal and she walked up to me normally.

“It’s just you?”

“Well technically, it’s me and this girl.”

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

“I smelled the scent of powerful beasts.”

“I don’t smell that bad right?”

She got close to me and sniffed around a few times.

“Be careful, whatever it is, it's been getting very close to you without you noticing.”

“How kind, I’ll be sure to remember your good intentions.”

“I know this probably won’t get through your skull but your life is in danger.”

“You make the mistake of thinking I care about living, the only reason I live is because I haven’t died yet.”

“Whatever, just take care of yourself.”

She scurried back inside and I took the girl inside and to my parents bedroom. I tossed her on the bed and thought about my next move, should I fuck her or get some actual work done? Rock, paper, scissors, shoot! I lost. Guess I’ll do work then.

***

Never before in her life had she seen anyone play rock-paper-scissors with themselves. What had he been choosing between anyways?

“What's your special ability?”

She wasn’t sure if he would kill her for her powers but the alternative was far worse.

“I’m a spellcaster.”

“So you’re magic?”

“In a sense, yes.”

“How do you do it?”

“You use your soul power to write words and cast them as effects.”

“Soul power? What is that?”

He didn’t even know what soul power was? How had he managed to get this far without any knowledge of what he was doing? This was her chance! She could tell him anything and he would believe it!

“Soul power comes from your soul and your soul is the materialization of your consciousness.”

“What does the soul do?”

“As the soul grows stronger so too will the body. With special methods of training we can develop special abilities.”

“How do you make your soul stronger?”

“We have meditation methods that enhance the power of our souls.”

“How long does it take for you to gain power that way?”

“It depends on your talent, status, method, and a multitude of other factors.”

“Teach me.”

Perfect! She would teach him the most self destructive method and have him kill himself.

“As everything lives they naturally release a bit of soul energy. For those of us who are aware we can filter and absorb that excess soul energy. To do this you have to imagine your soul as a pulling vortex collecting all of that excess energy. It’ll take a while before your consciousness is able to affect your soul enough to cause it to become a vortex but with enough time and effort your consciousness can do anything.”

He immediately sat down and began attempting the method she taught him. She expected that he would have more suspicions but it seemed he really was as childish as she thought. This method was one that many people had attempted but failed to succeed at. What they were really absorbing was the negative energy that others had towards them. No matter how powerful you were it was impossible to resist the influence of the countless wills that intruded your mind.

Many powerhouses had attempted this method but every single one of them had their souls torn apart and destroyed. It was even worse for evil practitioners who had greater amounts of hatred towards them. Many infamous evil beings had attempted this method only to have their souls completely disintegrated. One would think that beings who existed to feed off of negative energy would have no problem using this method but there was something wrong about it.

Many forms and variations of it had been developed in the natural course of events but every method had the same result. However… there were a specific few. Beings born to throw the world into chaos, raised under the perfect conditions to turn them into monsters that would destroy the world.

The only difference between them and the rest of the evil beings was that regardless of whether they had powers or not they would still be capable of throwing the world into chaos. The addition of soul powers only made their job easier, if left the way they were originally they would still bring the world to its knees. These beings were the only ones capable of using this method, as if it was made specifically for them.

Many of them had been on the path of destroying the world before they had been killed off to preserve the world. But those were only the ones who hadn’t learned about the method. Every one of them that had figured out the method had caused the strength of the soul world to regress several levels, with more and more powerhouses being lost each time. The main reason being that more and more people were coming into existence. The last one they had seen was centuries ago, if another one was created right now they would be doomed without a doubt.

She had carefully observed the man and figured out that he was only talented with soul powers. His soul powers were reality defying but it was clear that he never would have been able to cause harm to the world if he was a normal human being. What kind of world destroyer was as childish and foolish as him? As expected he began trembling and collapsed onto the floor in a seizure, all she had to do now was seal the remnants of his soul so she could study how he had become so powerful.